SaTC: CORE: Small: Blockchain-based Mechanisms for Timed Data Release and Timed Transactions

数据的定时发布是一个经典问题。定时数据释放确保数据在规定的发布时间之前保持安全且不被发现，并在发布时间自动释放。需要定时数据发布的应用程序示例包括安全拍卖系统（在所有投标到达之前需要保护投标信息）、版权敏感的数据发布（在版权到期时自动发布数据）和安全投票机制（在轮询过程结束之前不允许访问投票）。该项目开发了一种高度分散的解决方案，用于支持使用基于区块链的智能合约定时发布数据，该合约提供保证保护，防止在发布时间之前获取数据的对抗性攻击。本研究还通过分散的定时事务机制增强了定时数据释放技术，该机制允许在执行时间之前不泄露函数输入的情况下调度事务函数。该项目旨在提供技术、算法、设计和实现，以便在分散的区块链平台上实现数据的定时发布和定时执行。该项目的研究成果将被纳入匹兹堡大学的安全跟踪课程。该项目将使保安专业的学生参与拟议的研究和发展活动。与基于区块链的去中心化应用开发相关的新教学模块将被纳入高中学生的入门模块。该项目朝着构建下一代去中心化基础设施迈出了转型的一步，以支持不涉及单一信任点的定时数据发布和定时执行事务。该模型的一个关键方面是一套新颖的安全数据管理技术，它允许在未来的时间点发布数据，而不需要单个信任点（即，数据在发布时可用，而在发布之前，它保持未被发现和不可用）。定时释放机制以确定性的伪随机方式在定时数据释放系统中路由受保护的数据，使其能够在释放时自动出现。提议的技术使用区块链强制执行的货币激励机制来奖励诚实的同行并惩罚违反协议的人。该机制旨在防止系统中合理和恶意的对等体。系统设计的一个关键目标是最小化执行定时数据释放和定时执行协议的gas成本，同时保持高可伸缩性和可用性。该项目通过使用提议的技术开发一套分散的应用程序，演示了定时数据发布和定时执行功能的使用。该项目使用面向合约的编程语言Solidity实现了这些机制，并在Rinkeby以太坊测试网络上评估了这些技术。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Timed release of data is a classical problem. Timed data release ensures that data remains secure and undiscovered until a prescribed release time and gets automatically released at the release time. Examples of applications requiring timed data release include secure auction systems (bidding information needs protection until all bids arrive), copyrights-aware data publishing (data is automatically released when the copyright expires) and secure voting mechanisms (votes are not allowed to be accessed until the end of the polling process). This project develops a highly decentralized solution for supporting timed release of data using Blockchain-based smart contracts that provide guaranteed protection against adversarial attacks on obtaining access to the data before the release time. This research also augments the timed data release techniques with mechanisms for decentralized timed transactions that enable scheduling of transaction functions without revealing the function inputs prior to the execution time. The project aims to produce the techniques, algorithms, design and implementation to enable timed release of data and timed execution in decentralized blockchain platforms. Research results from the project will be integrated into the security track courses at the University of Pittsburgh. The project will engage the security track students in the proposed research and development activities. New teaching modules related to blockchain-based decentralized application development will be incorporated as introductory modules for high school students. The project takes a transformational step towards building next generation decentralized infrastructures for supporting timed data release and timed execution of transactions that do not involve a single point of trust. A key aspect to this model is a suite of novel secure data management techniques that allows data to be published at a future time point without a single point of trust (i.e., the data becomes available at the release time and prior to the release time, it remains undiscovered and unavailable). The timed-release mechanisms route the protected data within the timed data release system in a deterministically pseudo-random manner, enabling it to automatically appear at the release time. The proposed techniques use a monetary incentive mechanism enforced by the blockchain to reward honest peers and penalize violators of the protocol. The mechanisms are designed to protect against both rational and malicious peers in the system. A key objective of the system design is to minimize the gas cost of executing the timed data release and timed execution protocols while maintaining high scalability and availability. The project demonstrates the use of timed data release and timed execution features by developing a suite of decentralized applications using the proposed techniques. The project implements the mechanisms using the contract-oriented programming language, Solidity and evaluates the techniques on the Rinkeby Ethereum test network.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.